Photographer David Slater has won his legal battle over that monkey selfie. A US appeals court ruled Monday that US copyright law doesn't allow animals to file copyright infringement lawsuits.
Photographer David Slater's legal nightmare surrounding that monkey selfie snapped in 2011 isn't over. A US court has decided not to toss the copyright lawsuit filed against Slater by PETA on the monkey's behalf, despite Slater and PETA reaching a settlement last year.
Remember David Slater, the photographer whose camera was hijacked by a monkey and used for a series of selfies that went viral on the Internet? The photographer has spent years fighting a copyright battle in court over the photos, and now he's broke.
It seems that there's finally some resolution in the curious legal battle between PETA and a photographer over whether a monkey owns the copyright to the viral selfies he shot back in 2011.
A federal judge in San Francisco said yesterday that he's planning to dismiss the case, ruling that the monkey cannot own the copyright to photos.
In September, the animal rights group PETA filed a lawsuit against photographer David Slater, arguing that the monkey who took a series of viral selfies with Slater's camera in 2011 should be the rightful copyright owner.
If you thought that was strange, get this: the legal battle has now evolved into a dispute over the pictured monkey's identity and gender.
Remember that copyright controversy last year between photographer David Slater and the money that took selfies with Slater's camera back in 2011? PETA is joining in on the fracas.
The animal rights group filed a lawsuit yesterday on behalf of the monkey, a 6-year-old macaque in Indonesia named Naruto. PETA argues that Naruto is the legal copyright owner of the photos (seen above) rather than Slater, and that all proceeds from the photos should be used for the benefit of the monkey.